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Venezuelans flock to BTC, the digital currency as inflation has spiraled to the triple digits, debasing the the venezuelan currency, the bolivar (VEF) and depleting savings. Citizens struggle to find everything from food to medicine on store shelves. Ryan Taylor, chief executive officer of crypto currency Dash Core says "If you're going to be in something volatile, you might as well be in something that's volatile and rising than volatile and falling,". Crypto currency Dash Core is the third-largest digital coin by number of transactions. Bitcoin (BTC) trading volume in Venezuela jumped to 1.3 million US$ this week, about double the amount that changed hands two months ago, according to LocalBitcoins.com.
Venezuela's currency has become nearly worthless in the black market, where it takes more than 6000 bolivars (VEF) to buy 1 US$, while bitcoin surged 53% in May-2017 alone. But it's not just about shielding against the falling bolivar, as some Venezuelans are using crypto currencies to buy and sell everyday goods and services, according to Jorge Farias, the CEO of Cryptobuyer.
For those desiring a faster transaction time the crypto currency Ethereum exists with an average block settling time of 14 seconds since April 2016 according to themerkle.com.
Venezuela has 47e9 m³ in proven oil reserves, more than any other nation in the world. So now the only thing missing is to start the sale of oil using crypto currencies so that a military intervention can be justified..
All this happens while since at least 2014, hundreds of thousands of citizens have protested high levels of criminal violence, corruption, hyperinflation, and chronic scarcity of basic goods, arrest of opposition leaders, laws to force citizens to work in agricultural fields and farms for 60 days or longer, 40 inmates dismembered and consumed three fellow inmates, 200 prison riots in Venezuela in 2016 and so on. Tourist hotels probably have an all time low now for that super bargain..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 21 2017, @03:23AM (1 child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk1qlKu_RJo [youtube.com]
"Today in the corporate media, Venezuela’s economic problems are used to paint the country as a failed state, in need of foreign-backed regime change. To get the Bolivarian government’s side of the crisis, Abby Martin interviews Venezuela’s Minister of Economic Planning, Ricardo Menéndez. They discuss shortages, oil dependency, the role of the US-backed opposition movement and more. The Empire Files joined him in Cojedes, Venezuela, where he was speaking to mass community meetings, organizing the population to fight against what he calls an economic war."
See also:
"The Threat of a Good Example" by Noam Chomsky from 1992
https://chomsky.info/unclesam01/ [chomsky.info]
"As far as American business is concerned, Nicaragua could disappear and nobody would notice. The same is true of El Salvador. But both have been subjected to murderous assaults by the US, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and many billions of dollars. There’s a reason for that. The weaker and poorer a country is, the more dangerous it is as an example. If a tiny, poor country like Grenada can succeed in bringing about a better life for its people, some other place that has more resources will ask, "why not us?""
Obviously, the truth is probably in the middle there somewhere...
Government officials everywhere make tough choices and some mistakes -- while other forces push as hard as possible to create regimes where they can privatize gains and socialize costs and risks.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday June 21 2017, @08:03AM
When you can't get enough food or medicine on the grocery store shelves, no, it's really not. That nation is going to explode soon and nothing but $100/barrel crude or a return to capitalism could prevent it.
It's not difficult to grasp, really. When you tell people they no longer have to strive for their daily bread, they stop striving. If you don't have something in place that can absorb the massive productivity hit, your economy implodes. The only thing that has ever even slowed this down is central management taking socialism to communism and even then it has failed horribly in every single case.
Please don't bother bringing up the scandanavians. They may be disgusting welfare states but their economies are still largely free market capitalism; thus not socialists.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.